1969 Rock Song, Written by the ‘King of Folk,’ Was Reimagined by Cher Before It Became a Hit

Bob Dylan’s songs have been covered by everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Johnny Cash, but one of his more unexpected interpreters was Cher. The singer returned to Dylan’s catalog several times, including in 1969, when she put her own spin on “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You,” a new track from his Nashville Skyline album.

By then, Cher had already recorded a number of Dylan songs, from her No. 15 hit “All I Really Want to Do” to “Lay Lady Lay,” “I Threw It All Away,” “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Masters of War” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’.”

Her version of “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You” appeared on her 1969 album 3614 Jackson Highway, which was recorded at the legendary Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama. The album took its name from the studio’s address.

Written for Nashville Skyline, the song reflected Dylan’s shift toward the country-rock sound that defined the 1969 album. It closed the record and was later issued as its third single, after “I Threw It All Away” and “Lay Lady Lay,” reaching No. 50 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. 

Unlike some of Dylan’s earlier love songs, “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You” isn’t about searching for love or moving on. It’s about finding someone worth staying for.

Dylan uses the train as a recurring image throughout the song. The narrator hears the “whistle blowin” and knows the road is calling, but this time he has no desire to leave. Instead, he wants to “throw his ticket out the window” and stay with the woman he loves.

Cher recorded her version the same year the song appeared on Nashville Skyline, getting to it well before it had a chance to become a Dylan classic. She was far from the only artist to take it on, either. “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You” has also been recorded by artists including Jeff Beck, Ben E. King, Esther Phillips and Valerie June.

Dylan eventually took the song in a different direction. He first performed it live during the 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue, where the country-rock track took on a more forceful sound.

Cher, meanwhile, may have embraced Dylan’s songwriting, but she didn’t always understand his approach to performing it. Speaking with The New York Times in 2023, she recalled seeing Dylan perform around the time of Blood on the Tracks and admitted that some of the songs left her puzzled.

“I remember seeing Bob Dylan — I think it was Blood on the Tracks, and I went to the first concert and some of the songs I went, ‘What is this?’” Cher recalled. 

Her reaction reflected a fundamental difference between the two artists. While Dylan was known for changing his arrangements and reworking songs onstage, Cher prefers to give audiences the songs they came to hear. “I’m not going to do things differently. If people come to see you, they want you to do things they like,” she explained.

Related: 1964 Folk Song, Written by Bob Dylan, Launched a 19-Year-Old Singer’s Solo Career